TabbieKat
72
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Posted - 2012.07.22 14:42:00 -
[2] - Quote
I come from the time when if you wanted to play an RPG you had to grab a book, paper, and dice and make your character. So seeing names people choose interest me. Here for a laugh here are DnD's Three Don'ts for names 
1) No Bobs
When naming your character avoid everyday names like Jim, Betty, Dave, Sue, or Bob. The D&D world is a fantasy place, where magic is real and humans are only one of many races. In other words, it's not like the real world.
Fantasy names are an important part of the distancing effect. The disharmony between a fantasy world and familiar real-world names works only when the latter are used for deliberate comic effect. Thus Finieous Fingers's sidekicks are named Fred and Charly, Monty Python's King Arthur and his knights meet a wizard called Tim, and so forth. Be warned that such references to real world break the mood of the game and are only appropriate to parodies.
2) No Merlins
Because many a character is inspired by someone in a fantasy story or a movie, it's a natural impulse to borrow the name as a well as the character concept. Avoid the temptation.
Stealing the name of a well-known fantasy character reduces your character to a mere clone of the original. Similarly, applying a familiar name to a wholly new character creates the different problem of raising false expections in everyone who hears the name. ("No, I'm not that Conan") Acknowledge the inspiration, but make the concept your own -- with a name to match.
As an exception to the rule, note that lesser-known names from very well known sources might still be good possibilities. You don't want to name your wizard Gandalf or Saruman, but your fellow players may not recognize "Curunir" and Olorin" (different names for the same character from the Lord of the Rings, but they'll only know that if they paid close attention throughout a 1200-page book).
3) No Joke Names
It might seem a good idea at the time, but the longer you play the character and the better he or she becomes, the more you're going to regret having saddled him or her with a silly name (such as Tim the Dim, Fonkin Hoddypeaks, or Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter). Maybe your character will die before you tire of the joke, but you might find yourself stuck with a 20th-level wizard named Medium Rary.
Well that was the 3 don'ts, I hope you enjoyed them and any true RPG'er will be nostalgic to these rules |